New Indievania game portal lets you buy direct from creators, takes no cut

The developers behind the indie hit Capsized have started their own game …

Game developers setting up their own distribution channels isn't a new phenomenon, with Valve's Steam service being the most prominent example. But even though the developers at Alientrap Games—the team behind Capsized—enjoyed working with Valve, they still wanted the freedom of selling a DRM-free game and handling their own promotions. What started as a way to sell games from the Alientrap site has since expanded into Indievania, a new distribution site for indie titles where no games get rejected—and all of the profits go to the developers.

The site isn't actually designed to be a money-making machine for the small, two-man studio behind it. In fact, Alientrap doesn't even take a commission from game sales. When someone purchases a game from Indievania, they are purchasing directly from that particular developer's PayPal account. It's like buying the game directly from the developer, but with the benefits and promotion potential of a game portal. The site itself is funded entirely by optional donations at the end of each checkout.

There's also a focus on ease of use, as there's no client to download, no DRM included in the games, and no platform limits. Currently, PC, Mac, and Linux games are all available, and the Alientrap team is working on adding Android titles to the store as well.

"We realized a site like this was needed to be an open alternative," Alientrap's Lee Vermeulen told Ars. "Players want to support independent developers, not game distributors. So we wanted to make a site where the focus was on connecting the developers and players directly and eliminating the middle man."

While Steam can be challenging for indie developers looking to be accepted, Indievania has no screening process. "It's important to give developers the option to sell unfinished games or games that were rejected from other services to help fund further development," explained Vermeulen.

That being said, more popular games will still benefit from additional promotion. Games that sell well or are highly rated will be featured on the service's front page and will be promoted through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The site also plans to use bundles and other special deals to help attract consumers.

Though the service is still in open beta, it has already attracted a number of notable indie games, including Blocks That Matter and Cthulhu Saves the World, both of which are also for sale on Steam. According to Vermeulen, the response from the indie community has been positive.

"Developers have definitely loved the system. It was designed to make managing their game/sales/promotions as easy as possible," he told Ars. "We are trying to make the site basically the exact same as if a player was buying a game from the developer's website. And that's exactly what developers want—they want control over how their games are sold, but at the same time they need help with promoting their game and bundles that they can't do from just selling on their website."

Though he didn't go into details, Vermeulen explained that the team is currently in the process of adding additional features and games in order to get Indievania primed for its official launch in the near future.

"We definitely want to make sure the site is ready for a large audience," he said.

It's good to have options I guess, but I don't see how an un-curated portal is better than a developer owned website. If you aren't getting the benefits of Steam (payment processing, promotion, bundles, captive customers) then you might as well just do it yourself and have full control.

Zero cut gives me zero confidence this site will be around very long. The big draw of Steam is the online catalog it allows you keep. Without confidence the store will be around next year, I have little incentive to even look at the store.

It is nice to have an alternative out there, especially one that gathers indie devs. I might give it a shot, but as it has been said, there needs to be an insurance that this won't flop in a year or two so people don't lose their games.

Really?? They have a game called ^^^^^^ for purchase on their site? Does Terry Cavanagh know about this? I like the idea of another DRM-free site like GOG.com, but with games like that, they're asking for trouble.

Zero cut gives me zero confidence this site will be around very long. The big draw of Steam is the online catalog it allows you keep. Without confidence the store will be around next year, I have little incentive to even look at the store.

Given that these games are sold with no DRM, there is no concern that a failing business will result in shutting down activation servers (as is the case with Steam and Origin). Once you buy from Indievania (or GoG), it doesn't matter if they stay in business. Of course, you have to keep your downloaded installation files, but that doesn't sound unreasonable.

It's good to have options I guess, but I don't see how an un-curated portal is better than a developer owned website. If you aren't getting the benefits of Steam (payment processing, promotion, bundles, captive customers) then you might as well just do it yourself and have full control.

That means running your own website and managing your own payment processing. For a small team (especially if it's just a single developer), the ability to sell your game without having to invest time, energy or money in building and maintaining a site is pretty attractive. Also, selling your game through a marketplace like this puts your product directly in front of customers who are actively looking for indie games, which is pretty good marketing for free.

Zero cut gives me zero confidence this site will be around very long. The big draw of Steam is the online catalog it allows you keep. Without confidence the store will be around next year, I have little incentive to even look at the store.

Given that these games are sold with no DRM, there is no concern that a failing business will result in shutting down activation servers (as is the case with Steam and Origin). Once you buy from Indievania (or GoG), it doesn't matter if they stay in business. Of course, you have to keep your downloaded installation files, but that doesn't sound unreasonable.

Exactly this. Now it's like the old days where you have to keep up with your own discs or files.

Of course, you have to keep your downloaded installation files, but that doesn't sound unreasonable.

Again, that's the primary reason I buy games on Steam. The online persistent catalog is the 'killer app' for PC games. Without the catalog, then the game has to be truly astonishing for me to even bother with another distribution method.

Really?? They have a game called ^^^^^^ for purchase on their site? Does Terry Cavanagh know about this? I like the idea of another DRM-free site like GOG.com, but with games like that, they're asking for trouble.

No kidding, that looks like an outrageous ripoff!

Quote:

^^^^^^ is a retro platformer where you must flip gravity to traverse extremely hard levels. The goal is to collect all the energy bits located around the level to repair your space ship.

When you see the screenshots it cements the fact that it is a travesty.

The only thing I'm not so happy about is that it might take a lot of wading through shit before you find a decent title. It's not horrible at the moment but as time goes on there will likely be a number of copy cat titles and possibly complete knock offs plus the titles that just aren't worth a grain of salt.

That means running your own website and managing your own payment processing. For a small team (especially if it's just a single developer), the ability to sell your game without having to invest time, energy or money in building and maintaining a site is pretty attractive.

They are using paypal to do payments, anyone can do that. If you are serious enough that you are charging money for your game, then you need a website, it's not optional. It's also extremely cheap unless you have massive traffic, in which case you should be able to afford it. If you don't have a site full of screenshots and preferably a forum and maybe a wiki, you aren't even trying. That stuff is not hard in 2011.

Point still stands though. Name is just as ridiculous, and the graphics are just as "bad". Dunno what the actual game is like, of course, but if "Lol 8-bit" and "weird name" is the worst that commenters can come up with, I don't think Indievania has much to worry about.

Wow, this seems to be a bad deal for developers. It's good to get your game out there and get 100% of the proceeds, but it will only take one or two clones to bury you and your hopefully original idea. And there are TONS of assholes out there waiting to rip off a game and re-sell it with minor or even no changes.

Point still stands though. Name is just as ridiculous, and the graphics are just as "bad".

I'm honestly not sure what you're trying to say. I assume you're talking about VVVVVV, since the blatant ripoff game has no reviews that I saw, and it sounds like you're claiming that the former isn't worth your attention. It was arguably one of the best games to come out in 2010, though you're certainly entitled to your opinion (the throwback visuals and audio aren't for everyone, though they do add a considerable amount of charm to the puzzle/action game). But then you say this:

WolfintheSheep wrote:

Dunno what the actual game is like, of course, but if "Lol 8-bit" and "weird name" is the worst that commenters can come up with, I don't think Indievania has much to worry about.

and you seem to miss the original point that the game being published on this new site is a blatant ripoff, regardless of how you feel of the original version. Indievania has nothing to worry about?? They have plenty to worry about if they are going to allow lawsuit-bait like this on their site.

One of the strengths of Steam is it's easy updates and installations. Buying from this means handling updates and backups yourself, or relying on the developers to reinvent their own updating mechanism.

I think Desura makes a much better case but I don't know how much is their cut.

"Players want to support independent developers, not game distributors..."

Quote:

The site itself is funded entirely by optional donations at the end of each checkout.

Something metallic about that.

I wonder how their donations will work. It must be a separate transaction (right?). 2dboy said they didn't earn anything for $0.30 donations, so I assume that they'll need donations to be above that mark to make anything. Most people who donate will probably give them a dollar? But some games are a dollar... I imagine if it works out really well for some developers, they might have partnership programs for more promotion. Good luck to them.

Ignus Fast wrote:

Wow, this seems to be a bad deal for developers. It's good to get your game out there and get 100% of the proceeds, but it will only take one or two clones to bury you and your hopefully original idea. And there are TONS of assholes out there waiting to rip off a game and re-sell it with minor or even no changes.

Sounds like the Android marketplace (I imagine iOS too). But developers have the same problem on the internet. Marketing sells games and getting your game on the portals first so that the word gets out about your game is the best way to make money. Unless you're already a big company, then you just use lawyers

That made me think about someone from buying a game on the store and then selling it on the store as their own. But they are moderating games:

indievania wrote:

Registering as a developer will take you instantly to the game adding pages, where you can submit your game to our system. It'll be held in moderation until a moderator approves it and uploads the files to our storage.

Then again, Apple moderates their store and someone did that to Lugaru on the Mac App store.

They are using paypal to do payments, anyone can do that. If you are serious enough that you are charging money for your game, then you need a website, it's not optional. It's also extremely cheap unless you have massive traffic, in which case you should be able to afford it. If you don't have a site full of screenshots and preferably a forum and maybe a wiki, you aren't even trying. That stuff is not hard in 2011.

Oh, what I meant to say is that it costs more than no-money/no-time to do it right. The indie guys that do have a free phpBBDrupalFizzyCamlBOL server often end up with it turning into a pile of farmaceutical (what can you do when there's already a 'ph'?) spam. Second, you haven't heard of PCI, in the current year that we so happen to be situated in?

I have Defy Gravity Extended for sale on indievania for 3$. For every single purchase the paypal sale was split between me and indievania. It sent $0.27 per sale to alientrap games(ie. indievania). This is in addition to the paypal fee. The last transaction occurred on Aug 15th.

Oh, what I meant to say is that it costs more than no-money/no-time to do it right. The indie guys that do have a free phpBBDrupalFizzyCamlBOL server often end up with it turning into a pile of farmaceutical (what can you do when there's already a 'ph'?) spam. Second, you haven't heard of PCI, in the current year that we so happen to be situated in?

It's a cost of releasing a game, if you actually expect it to do well. There's no way around it. If you are selling anything on the web then you need a website, because people automatically are wary of things that don't have a website.

Of course, you have to keep your downloaded installation files, but that doesn't sound unreasonable.

Again, that's the primary reason I buy games on Steam. The online persistent catalog is the 'killer app' for PC games. Without the catalog, then the game has to be truly astonishing for me to even bother with another distribution method.

It's the reason I don't have a Steam account (aside from lack of a native Linux client for Steam). I don't want to rely on a third party for any purchased product. I want a one-time transaction, after which I don't have to care about the fate of the seller. Local storage isn't a problem. I bought a 1.5 TB NAS in 2008, and I still haven't managed to fill it up yet (though it's gradually getting closer) Since I already back up my own files regularly (because I don't want to lose them), it really isn't difficult or expensive to have a backup of the full NAS.

Online persistent catalog with free re-downloads is a nice bonus feature (GOG.com has it, eMusic used to have it), I certainly would never even consider relying on that as my primary storage (as in the case of eMusic, where the feature was removed, presumably at the request of the music labels). As far as I'm concerned, it's DRM-free downloads or nothing. Actually, I would consider disc-based physical media DRM for something I really wanted, but for marginal products or impulse buys even that would be a deal killer.

I trust my ability to keep a DVD in good condition more than I trust an online authentication server to remain running, but then again I'm careful with my discs, and I have plenty of games on DC and DVD going back to the mid 90's that still work fine (aside from non-media-related compatibility problems with DOSBox or Wine). Many of them are from developers or publishers that no longer exist, and I suspect that if they required online authentication, they probably would be unplayable (unless I repurchased them on GOG.com DRM-free)